I LOVE:
The Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling
(not only are they great fantasy books for kids AND ADULTS but it does my librarian heart good to know that Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling changed the course of reading for kids throughout the world.

The Melendy series by Elizabeth Enright
(The Saturdays, Four-Story Mistake, Then There Were Five). This is a calm, peaceful, lean into the way-back series about a family in the 1940’s who move from NYC to “the country”. They have a bunch of mini-adventures but it’s mostly about damming streams, holding fairs and celebrating birthdays. Sigh… if only…)

Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery by Russel Freedman
(Perhaps the best biography of ER that I’ve read (and I’ve read a lot!). This covers the highs and the lows of the life of Eleanor plus it includes fabulous photos.)

I’ll start at the beginning, with my favorites from childhood (lost my original copies, but they have been replaced).

– Miss Twiggley’s Tree – a lovely story about an eccentric woman who lives in a willow tree with her dog Puss. She sleeps in her hat and has bears over for tea. Everyone in town thinks she’s strange but okay, except for the Mayor’s wife.

– The Little Fur Family – my copy of this book is about 2″ by 3″, and is covered in soft gray fur. It is about a little fur child who goes on a tiny little adventure. At the end of it he comes home and his parents sing him to sleep.

Then there are the children’s books that I found as an adult, of which my favorite is
– Mr Putter and Tabby Pour the Tea – about an elderly gentleman who decides he wants a cat. The pet store tries to sell him on the kittens, but he picks an elderly cat instead, and they become best friends. This is the beginning of a series, about this pair and their neighbor with her dog. They go on quiet little adventures, and the stories are very sweet without being at all cloying.

For adult books, a few of my favorites are
– Spindle’s End – or really any of the fairy tale books by Robin McKinley. She manages to expand and change the stories while staying true to the classic. In this one particularly, there are some lovely twists and character development. For example, Aurora grows up as far from a princess as you can get and the fairy gifts are not so useful. She hates her golden curls, and her teeth are so pearly white that they almost glow in the dark.

– Thud – The center of the “Night Watch” set in the Discworld series, Thud follows Sam Vimes as he navigates an ancient (and ongoing) conflict between the Trolls and the Dwarves, while still making it home every night to read to his young son.

– Uprooted – Combining a couple of fairy tale elements (noticing a theme?) with some wonderful descriptions of new kinds of magic and elements that I haven’t seen before. I found myself rereading passages just because they were so beautiful.